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Interviewing—whether for a new job or another position with your current employer—can be a nerve-wracking experience. You hope your qualifications speak for themselves, but they may not be enough to set you apart from a pool of equally talented candidates.
To get noticed, take the time to develop a few key interview skills. By learning to create an authentic connection with the interviewer and clearly articulating your value to the company, you’ll be one step closer to landing the job you want.
1. Clarify the interview questions
Most people are afraid to ask an interviewer to clarify a question, said Sarah Sutton Fell, CEO and founder of job posting website FlexJobs. You may worry that the interviewer will think you haven’t been paying attention, but making sure you fully understand the question can really help you give a thoughtful, relevant answer.
“Try to paraphrase the question and say, ‘Is that what you’re asking?'” Fell said.
You can also use this as an opportunity to turn the interviewer’s mind and ask them questions. By treating the interview as a two-way conversation and asking smart, thoughtful questions, candidates can gauge whether the company is a good fit for them, says Dana Leavy-Detrick, certified career coach and founder of Aspyre Solutions.
“Candidates should ask questions that will ultimately give them deeper insight into the company’s values, cultures and even challenges,” she said. For example, candidates can ask interviewers to talk about their own career at the company, describe a typical day, or highlight the qualities that make someone successful in the organization.
2. Think out loud
One mistake many interviewees make is delaying when they don’t have an answer ready or answering with “I don’t know.” Sean Burton, CEO of social recruiting tool HiringSolved, said thinking out loud is a good tactic to combat this problem.
“The best approach is to have modest confidence,” Burton said. “Repeat the interviewer’s question and continue your thought process out loud. The interviewer can tell you if you are thinking actively instead of procrastinating.”
3. Communicate non-verbally
Being mindful of your presence and being aware of your body language will help you appear more calm and in control.
“Good nonverbal communication speaks volumes about a candidate,” said Jonah Myers, an instructor at Southwestern Oklahoma State University’s Everett Dobson School of Business. “It’s something most people don’t practice, but it makes it very obvious when you’re nervous.”
Myers recommended conducting mock interviews with a friend or in front of a mirror to practice your eye contact, posture and other indicators of body language confidence.
“Since there’s no quicker way to kill an interview than to come across as uninterested, bored or disengaged, being able to practice and get feedback will help you work out the little nuances of your interview that you may not yet be aware of ,” said Sanjay Sathe, president and CEO of outplacement firm RiseSmart.
4. Familiarize yourself with your resume
This may seem obvious, but knowing your own resume inside and out is critical to interview success. You can take it to the next level by going into every interview prepared to provide measurable specifics about the accomplishments documented on your resume.
“Whenever possible, include statistics to put your accomplishments in perspective,” recommends Sathe.
According to Sathe, it is much more compelling to say that you provided customer service to more than 120 customers per week and achieved a 75 percent resolution rating than to simply say that you provided customer service and resolved issues.
“Whatever your contributions have been, quantifying them will legitimize your achievements,” he said.
5. Tell a compelling story
Hiring managers can collect bits of information about you anywhere from your resume to your Twitter feed. Separately, these individual details don’t always represent you accurately, but you can use the interview to bring these fragments together, creating a more complete narrative of who you are and what you can offer an employer.
“The interview is your opportunity to tie everything together and tell a cohesive and compelling story about yourself and your brand,” Sathe said. “Creating vignettes that tell a story about your accomplishments and your career trajectory that is tied to an employer’s needs is significantly more compelling…than a disjointed list of past job duties and a description of your skills.”
6. Use knowledge of the company and the interviewer
Every job seeker is told to research the company and position they’re interviewing for carefully, but it’s just as important to know how to use that information to your advantage. Myers recommended examining not only the job description and the organization, but also the community in which it is located.
“It’s very impressive when a candidate can talk about why he or she is a good fit for the position, as well as what’s going on in the company’s community,” she said.
Burton added that using LinkedIn to research the hiring manager and anyone else you might talk to before the interview can give you an understanding of each person’s background and potentially some common ground to spark discussion.
Additionally, following the company on Facebook and Twitter, and setting up a Google alert to receive notifications when the company is in the news, will allow you to thoroughly research the company and its industry. By diving into this information, you can craft interview questions and conversation topics that speak specifically and intelligently about the business you want to enter.
Additional reporting by Nicole Fallon. Some source interviews were conducted for an earlier version of this article.
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